534. Seeley— On the Cretaceous Beds at Ely. 
As the Gault presents the same wedge-shape, that too probably 
thins off from a similar unequal depression of bottom ; for within 
certain limits where the bottom is deepest, there will the thickest 
beds be formed. The fossils of the Ely Gault are like those found 
at its base elsewhere, and as Upper Gault is almost everywhere 
unfossiliferous, I suspect only the lower part is here, and that the 
Greensand rests unconformably upon it ; and as already remarked, 
the beds do not pass into each other. Clearly it would not have been 
remarkable had these strata been wanting ; and to me their presence 
indicates a shoal sea dividing the northern from the southern area. 
The Shanklin Sands are the result of upheaval changing the rivers, 
and bringing old Paleozoic and granitic rocks into denudation. ‘The 
Gault is a partial return to the old river condition of the Kimmeridge 
Clay. The Upper Greensand in this district is certainly a shore de- 
posit, so there is now greater upheaval thanever. But the Chalk is 
the result not only of a depression of the Greensand sea but of the 
continent of which it was the shore. 
IIl.—Tue Rocks AnD MINERALS OF FINLAND. 
By Gzorcs E. Rozgrrts, F.G.8., F.A.S.L. 
I OBTAINED last summer, through the kindness of my venerable 
friend, Dr. Nils Nordenskidld, of Helsingfors, a fine collection 
of Finnish rocks and minerals, collected by his son, Professor Adolph 
Nordenskiéld, of the Academy of Science, Stockholm. Very little 
attention has been given in this country either to the rocks or 
mineral productions of this part of Northern Europe, although both 
are exceedingly remarkable. I propose, therefore, to introduce some 
of the more interesting in this article, giving at the same time a brief 
sketch of the general mineralogy of the land. 
A privately-printed catalogue of the various minerals found in 
Finland by Dr. Nordenskidld lies before me. I find it to contain, 
including some recent MS. additions, 175 varieties. These are ar- 
ranged under the following heads:—Haploiten, i.e. elementary 
minerals in a native state ; Diploiten, those having two elements ; 
Bidiploiten, those which are compounds of any two minerals of the 
last-named group; Tridiploiten, Tetradiploiten, and Pentadiploiten, 
groups composed respectively of minerals which consist of combi- 
nations of three, four, and five of the Diploiten integers. Lastly, a 
group of minerals the composition of which has not been satisfac- 
torily ascertained. 
Among minerals of the first group, graphites are prone My 
specimens of this carbonaceous mineral show it as brilliant scales, or 
in minute folded leaves upon the surface of calcareous spar, in pleas- 
ing association with pale-green apatite, black crystals of pyroxene, 
and the orange-yellow mineral known as chondrodite. Ersby in the 
Pargas district is its best locality—a locality which has yielded some 
of the rarest of Finnish minerals. Crystals of a graphite have also 
been met with at Ersby by Dr. E. Nordenskidld, and pronounced by 
him monoclinic, the form obliquely tabular, not unlike common mica. 
